Glorelendil wrote:Would love to hear report/anecdotes about how these characters worked out and how they were played.
Okay, in the Sunday game we had Sibil, Dianach, Mund and Mendellon. All were played by fantastic roleplayers; Mund had the least amount of experience with the system but instantly grokked how traits worked and played the dwarf to the hilt.
Avoiding spoilers:
After a brief "getting to know the heroes" bit, the game started with an Encounter with an individual of strong personality. They rolled really well, and
bold Mund sealed the deal, securing promise of great reward if they successfully completed their mission.
Next came a long journey. With the characters in play, it was decided that Sibil had to serve as Scout. As chance would have it, she had to find a river crossing, which she did without too much trouble but then she Wounded herself struggling to get her horse across.
During the Journey, we had several Hazards. Most were dealt with easily enough, but one of the last made Mendellon Miserable for the remainder of the Adventuring Phase. This, of course, had tragic consequences in the end.
The heroes reach their destination and after a frosty conversation with their contact (and a break for lunch) they agree to aid him. He leads them to a dangerous location, but Mund's Awareness in dark places and Dianach's sense of an Ill Omen (Extraordinary Gandalf on the Riddle test) allowed her to sneak in and realise that they must confront a dangerous foe in order to get where they need to go.
They come up with a plan. Sibil cannot get her horse into the location, so she goes rearward and the others charge forward. The adversary is Hideously Tough and piercing shots are unsuccessful at bringing it down. Eventually, mostly through dwarven steadfastness, the enemy is worn down and defeated. That it raged from foe to foe with no plan (and I still think we might have accidentally skipped one of its turns) means that the heroes are able to recover relatively easily.
They find the object of their quest, but during this scene Mendellon's Bout of Madness occurs. I pull the player (
wbweather) out of the room and tell him that Mendellon will make an error of judgement the next time he is alone with the object and for him to act out the consequences of that action whenever he has a chance.
The heroes come up with a clever plan to get the object back to their final destination, and Mund is called upon to Craft a way for a boat to become a sled so that it can travel overland (a brilliant plan by Sibil). Near to the execution of this plan, the heroes are ambushed by a teeming horde of orcs. They decide that discretion is the better part of valour and flee from the orcs. A tense chase scene follows, and unlooked-for aid arrives (Esmund and his Riders).
This turns into a tense Encounter. Fortunately, Sibil is with them and invokes her mission from Thengel to explain their destination. Dianach and Sibil are clever and Esmund is mostly satisfied with their answers. Things take a turn for the worse when he asks of their cargo and Mendellon freaks out. But ruffled feathers are dealt with, and the heroes achieve an acceptable success from the Encounter.
When they return, the Master is most happy with their success... until he learns of Mendellon's tampering. He demands that the other heroes leave (after accusing each of them in turn of being the tamperer) and Mendellon suffers some permanent consequences for his ill judgement.
Of course, if it wasn't a con-game, I doubt I would have pushed so hard on Mendellon's Bout. But (I think) it provided a nice ending to the story, and the heroes got to see two sides of their master, which is appropriate.
